What We Each Call Family
by CuriosityComplex
Summary: A one-shot prompted by a kind anon on Tumblr. On her way back to the precinct with a low-life drug dealer, Jane is ambushed by some of Paddy O'Doyle's thugs. A short exploration of what family is to Paddy, and what it is to the BPD team.


**ANON (Tumblr)** : _R &I prompt:_ Jane is bringing in a suspect to the station for questioning when someone starts shooting at her car, shooting her, and forcing her to crash. It's later found out that Paddy is involved.

* * *

 _[On the phone]_

"Hello," Maura says, sitting back in her chair.

"Hey Maur', just on my way back to the station." Jane says quite non-chalantly.

"I take it you had a successful apprehension of the suspect?"

"Yeah, the perp's in the back seat," Jane says, a little tired. "Did a runner and _then_ tried to say that I had the wrong guy." She says, glancing up in the rearview mirror with a slight roll of her eyes.

"Well, that just seems silly. The likelihood of someone feeling guilty enough to run and turning out to be the wrong target is rather slim." Maura shuffles the papers on her desk, reorganising the files. "Are you still interested in going to the Dirty Robber this evening?"

"Yeah, I just… shit." Jane says, beginning to gauge what's happening, her eyes darting around quite frantically. She can see some suspicious looking guys up ahead and they seem all too interested in her car's movements.

"Is everything alright?" Maura asks, suddenly concerned.

"I'll call you-"

Through the phone, all Maura hears after that is a gunshot and the skid of tyres followed by a loud crashing sound. "Oh my god," she says, now incredibly panicked. "Jane!" She practically screams into the phone.

She received no reply.

She hangs up, and rushes to find Korsak's number. As it rings, she is getting more worked. "Answer, please Vince, answer…"

"Korsak," he says professionally.

"Vince," her voice obviously quite flustered. "It's Jane. I was talking to her." Her sentences are short and not at all concise.

"Maura, slow down. What's happened?" He's quick to catch on and understands that whatever the topic may be, it's clearly important.

Maura takes a breath and manages to string a few more useful sentences together. "I was speaking to Jane as she drove back to the station with Jimmy O'Kiefe in her custody and then I heard gun shots followed by the sound of a crashing car. I don't know where on her route she was."

"Okay, I have to go Maura so I can organize a trace on her phone and see if anyone has called anything in. I will keep you informed," he says reassuringly.

Maura spends the next few minutes pacing back and forth in her office before working up the nerve to go up to the bullpen and see what's happening.

"Have you found her?" She says urgently.

"Yeah, just now. We've traced her cell to Twelfth, heading south. A bus is on its way and we've got officers already on route. I'm just about to head out, also. Would you like to join me?" Korsak, always thoughtful.

Maura just nods with a frightened look in her eyes.

By the time they arrive, cops and medics are already on the scene. Getting out of the car, Maura can feel the panic in the atmosphere (as if she needed more). Walking quickly towards the car that is now merged with the shopfront of a convenience store, she can hear the medics and she can't see Jane. She can't see either of them. She runs to the closest ambulance, only to find it empty. Turning quickly, she tries to take everything in. The crime tape, the police controlling the already growing crowd of passer-byes. There's another ambulance, a few metres away, so she runs to that one where she can see a patient on a gurney. "Jane!" The word leaves her lips involuntarily. Maura can't tell who it is, but needs to believe that the patient being worked on by paramedics is Jane otherwise she may not make it through the night.  
"Oh my god, Jane." She pauses. Tears quickly begin to flow from her eyes. "It's okay, it's okay, it's going to be okay." She's not sure who she is trying to comfort, herself or Jane.

"Maur'… hey," she says in a voice quieter than usual.

"Are you okay? Where are you shot?" She turns the the medic next to her. "Is she okay?"

The medic just nods, as Jane once again speaks. "Maur, it's okay. I'm okay." She glances down at her upper arm, trying not to move her head too much. There is a tightly wrapped bandage with some gauze underneath it, already seeping blood through.

Maura too looks down, and finds herself having to refrain from squeezing Jane's arm in reassurance. Instead, she just rests her hand on her leg.

It's clear how much she cares as Jane looks into Maura's eyes.

She lets out a small sigh of relief. "Who did this to you?"

The detective is hesitant to answer, and instead just pauses.

"Jane, what is it?"

"A couple of Paddy's goons…" She waits before continuing. "I guess they didn't want Jimmy testifying against him at the trial, so decided to kill him instead."

Maura can't help but feel guilty. The last time she spoke to Paddy, a month or so after Jane had shot him in self-defence, she made him promise that he would never go near Jane. She was so mad. She hated that she believed him, and more so that it resulted in risking Jane's life. "I'm so sorry," she says, feeling slightly responsible.

"This is not your fault," she's quick to say. "They wanted O'Kiefe, and they got him. I'm fine." She pauses, trying to find something to say that will relieve Maura of at least some of the stress she's feeling. "More importantly, they're not. At least one of them isn't." Jane looks to Maura, who is now perplexed. "One of the guys was on look out and when I swerved, the car ended up hitting him."

Maura just presses her lips together, thankful but still too overwhelmed to remark anything she'd not regret saying.

"The other two got away, but we're going to find them." Jane's eyes say she's truthful.

Maura doesn't understand how she's always sure, but she knows the statistics of the homicide unit are in their favour.

"We're gonna get them," She repeats with certainty.

* * *

 **Hey guys, thanks so much for reading. I really hope I didn't disappoint. I'd love to hear any feedback you might have.**

 **Please also feel free to send me any prompts you may have. I may take a little to get back to them, but I'd love to give them a go and hopefully create something awesome.**

 **Hope you're all happy and well. Thank you again for reading.**

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